I'd suggest that Transatlantic's "The Whirlwind" might belong in the Stunning Recordings category. If you really want to see what your system is capable of, put on their cover of Santana's "Soul Sacrifice" on Disk 2 and listen to the percussion solo. I just did that very thing and it was breathtaking, even with "mere" M-22s, a VP150, and QS8s. My Klipsch sub was rockin'.

Boy, it sounded good. The toms are rich and full. The thud of the driving kick drum centers in your diaphragm. No vocals, keys or guitars to get in the way. Just polyrhythmic splendour at floor-shaking SPLs. Whoof!

I spent this afternoon listening to my birthday present (today I'm 1 year short of being an official 'Senior Old Phart') from my daughter - Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton 'play the blues' CD. It comes as a CD & DVD set & contains different genres of the blues (all selected by Clapton) with big band, jazzy themes.

This CD definitely qualifies as stunning - highly recommended. It was superbly recorded over 3 live concerts at The Lincoln Center in April 2011 featuring outstanding musicians playing superbly throughout. It sounds really fine through my tube amp with no digital harshness whatsoever. Why can't they produce all CDs this way?

The standout track for me is a long version of 'Layla' featuring Clapton's vocals & wonderful guitar surrounded by horns of all kinds - absolutely brilliant. I never thought that I'd hear that tune being played that way.

One nice thing about live recordings such as this, is that the selections all end properly instead of fading out as is found far too often on normal commercial recordings.

Now, I have to fire up the DVD, watch the concert, shake the house & have some birthday cake with ice cream...

Although I had read several times that this album is really, really good, I never got around to buying a copy because I am not a country music fan. I finally pulled the trigger last week for $2.99 from an Amazon marketplace seller.

Well, this album certainly deserves its reputation. It is a stunning recording. Even though there is only one track that I really like musically (track 3, She's Already Made Up Her Mind), I listened to the whole album and just marveled at the incredible sound quality.

I have the Joshua Judges Ruth SACD. The surround mix is a little much for some tracks -- "Church" puts the choir all around you, and "North Dakota" has the drums panning strangely -- but the audio quality is really stellar.

I have the DTS 5.1 release of Joshua Judges Ruth. It's been a long time since I listened to it, but it's a great album. I wouldn't claim to like country, either, but Lyle Lovett hardly blends easily into the genre. As distinctive in his own way as Johnny Cash.

I spent this afternoon listening to my birthday present (today I'm 1 year short of being an official 'Senior Old Phart') from my daughter - Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton 'play the blues' CD. It comes as a CD & DVD set & contains different genres of the blues (all selected by Clapton) with big band, jazzy themes.

This CD definitely qualifies as stunning - highly recommended. It was superbly recorded over 3 live concerts at The Lincoln Center in April 2011 featuring outstanding musicians playing superbly throughout. It sounds really fine through my tube amp with no digital harshness whatsoever. Why can't they produce all CDs this way?

The standout track for me is a long version of 'Layla' featuring Clapton's vocals & wonderful guitar surrounded by horns of all kinds - absolutely brilliant. I never thought that I'd hear that tune being played that way.

One nice thing about live recordings such as this, is that the selections all end properly instead of fading out as is found far too often on normal commercial recordings.

Now, I have to fire up the DVD, watch the concert, shake the house & have some birthday cake with ice cream...

As to recording quality, there are certainly those which are "harsh" because of the original performance or the mixing and mastering applied to it, but there's no such thing as "digital harshness". Digital sampling can only reproduce what it's given; it can't add harshness or any other quality.

If you're looking for more consistent(although certainly not uniform)good quality, many of the classical recordings suggested here might be of interest.

Ref 'digital harshness' - I suppose that you are right; however, there are many, many listeners out there that swear that it exists due to inadequate sampling rates, etc, etc, & that analogue (vinyl & tubes) is somehow smoother sounding. I think that there may be some truth to those theories, but the actual recording methods/equipment, mixing & compression have the most impact on how the actual product sounds.

In my CD collection that goes back to the very first CD releases, there are some really poor renderings out there, especially in some of the older ones. Several are almost painful, even through tubes...

I assume that you're aware, as has been common knowledge for years, that some of the early CDs(rather incredibly)used the same bass cut and treble boost which was applied to LPs to compensate for their weaknesses. The RIAA LP equalization of course applied bass boost and treble cut when LPs were played, to achieve a balanced output. Those CDs when played back without LP equalization naturally were deficient in bass and had excess treble, resulting in a harshness which started the "digital harshness" myth which still hangs on today among those who aren't adequately informed about modern audio technology.